A group of business women is working to launch an Inforum chapter in Southwest Michigan this fall.

Inforum is a professional women's alliance with more than 1,800 members across the state. The group is based in Southeast Michigan and has chapters in Mid-Michigan and West Michigan.

However, there was a strong desire to start a chapter in the Southwest region, said Judy Welch, vice president of Inforum’s West Michigan region, which is helping the new chapter get up and running.

“It’s just far enough where it’s hard for people to leave during the day to get to Grand Rapids or Lansing or Detroit,” Welch said of the Kalamazoo-Portage-Battle Creek area.

And there wasn’t a comparable group in Southwest Michigan, said Amy Jones-Calderon, who’s spearheading the formation of the new region.

“What I like about Inforum is that it’s more than just networking,” said Jones-Calderon, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch in Kalamazoo. “That’s part of what they do, and if you put that along with the professional development and executive exposure, that’s what sets it apart, for me, from other organizations in the area.”

Welch believes the new chapter will be a success because Inforum now has an expansion model to follow from its growth into Mid-Michigan in 2004 and West Michigan in 2005. Plus, the group of women driving the formation is very dedicated, Welch said.

“We have about 12 committee members, and it’s growing every day,” Jones-Calderon said.

During the Southwest region’s membership drive this fall, individuals who join Inforum will become founding members, Welch said. The committee hopes to hold a meet-and-greet event sometime in October to introduce people to what Inforum is and the benefits of membership.

Networking groups are especially important right now because so many people are in career transitions or will be looking for a new position soon, Jones-Calderon said.

“If you want to reinvent yourself, whether it’s starting your own business or changing careers, you have this amazing group of women — and also men — that you’re able to connect with,” Welch said.

One of the key aspects of Inforum is the diversity of its membership, Welch said. The organization has programming geared to young professionals, C-level executives, entrepreneurs and other professionals, so members have the opportunity to network with people they might not have contact with otherwise.

And members can make good contacts statewide, Jones-Calderon said.

“We will continue to be a statewide organization, which makes it nice because we have women in Southeast Michigan who are doing business in Southwest Michigan, women in Southwest who are doing it in West and Mid-Michigan,” Welch said. “So we’re giving an opportunity for women to really branch across the state.”